The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-07-30
BAD MAN FROM BITTER CREEK.
The Original Citizen who Made Life
Miserable for the People.

help it. was from there, and now
can't very well get away for keeps.
Besides, why should L? l am do
ing very we'll there and like the
place.
"But 1 get little weary. Every
where l go when / put down my
name the fool clerk says:
"'Oh, ah! You're the Bad Man
from Bitter Creek, are you?'
"These things make me weary
New to the idiotic clerks and 9TH
ers, perhaps, who make the remark,
but awfully old to me.
"You say you half supposed this
Bitter Greek, or at least the Bad Man
part of it, to be hypothetical? Not
a bit of it. Consult your map.
You'll find one Bitter Greek in Wy
oming, two in Arizona, one, and
possibly two, in Utah, one in Mon
tana and one in California. Almost
all are small streams, or they would
be called rivers, as you may suppose.
swell, the genuine and historic
stream is i'm southwestern Montana,
and that's where l hail from. The
creek is 40 miles long, and emp
ties into the Clark's Fork of the
Columbia.
"The bad man was a fellow
named Jim Yount, an exceedingly
rocky individual, who came there in
very early times from Tennessee.
Nobody knew the exact date, for
he was ahead of most everybody
else. He was none Of your mild
hammered sort of men as Slade
was represented to be. Originally,
in Tennessee, suppose he was a
Knob-hiller, and as he grew older
he rapidly grew worse.
upon my word, he was the most
vicious, vindictive man | ever heard
of. He fairly earned his title. We
heard he was a murderer in Ten
nessee of three boys, playmates in
school whom he didn't like. He
sloped to Missouri and knitted an
old gentleman, in whose employ he
was, because the old man insisted
on his getting up at & o'clock in
the morning.
"He blazed his way in this man.
ner pretty effectually to the west.
One Of the first deeds, which the
pioneers of Montana recollect, was
the shooting off Of both ears of a
bull-whacker by Jim.
"Jim saw him driving along, and
remarked to a friend that he thought
he could make center-shOt OH the
teamster's big ear. The friend
doubted it, and he let her go. He
struck the auditing apparatus plum
i'm the middle. Before the teamster
could clap his hand his hand on
the shot ear, whack went bail
through the other ear.
"The bad man then asked the
bull-whacker if he didn't want him
to present him with couple Of ear
bobs, since he had such nice round
holes to put them'in.
Ills next deed was to burn a
school house, some twenty miles
awav. He claimed that the chill
drcn made faces at him as he was
going along one day, and he'd be
hanged if he'd have such kids to
grow up to know any more than
he did.
"In dispute with two confeder-
ates about some stolen horses, IN
60, a year after this school house
affair, he killed both of them, took
all the stock and gobbled their
money. He didn't even bury the
fellows, but left their bodies lying
fifty yards or so from the corral.
"But his best hold was in the sa-
looms. He'd drink a barrel Of whis-
ky every few days-no soft drinks
for him-whisky every time. He
had a bleared, botched face, that
looked like chrome, and his
oaths and language in general was
something frightfui to hear.
| don't recoIlect a crime in those
early days that he didn't commit.
He held up stages, stole bullion
and robbed mails with impuity.
Nobody molested him. Everybody
feigned not to know who did it,
and everybody went around cring,
ingly asking Jim as they patted
him on the back, to take drink.
Quite often he'd get mad at this
even, and tell them to have care
how they came soldering around
him or he'd shoot the tops of their
heads off. .,,,
"Jim played many brilliant en-
popements of this sort around Vir-
ginia City, in Montana, Boulder
City and other places. His Bitter
Creek ranch was only rendezvous
for him, a sort Of central or Plv-
otal point, where he and fellow
thieves rounded up their stolen
horses and cattle.
"Jim ran along for several years
in this way, cutting, shooting ana
killing until he boasted himself
that two gravcyards wouldn't hold
Tho roonio that he had laid away.